It has long been recognized that it is desirable to be able to draw or tow a plurality of farm implements, such as grain drills or the like, in an offset relationship to one another behind a single towing tractor. In this manner the user covers a wider area in a single path to save time and fuel. However, it has also been recognized that one must also be able to transport said farm implements over the road to other fields and the width of any such arrangement must be sufficiently narrow to accommodate road travel.
Many apparatus have been devised to attempt to solve this problem and to do so with means which permit maintaining the proper relationship between the towed farm implements in the offset configuration when the towing vehicle is making the many turns required during typical field use.
These prior art attempts have been partially successful, however, they have not been satisfactory in arriving at a solution wherein the towed implements are maintained in the proper offset field configuration and also are quickly and easily switched to a vertically aligned relationship or other more narrow configuration for transport over roads and highways without a significant loss of both time and effort by the user. It should be noted that time is of the utmost importance during the critical planting and harvesting season and can make the difference between financial success or failure for a farmer, particularly with the limitations weather may place on the ability to work a given field during such critical seasons.
A typical representation of the prior art is represented by the following patents:
______________________________________ 1,044,744 3,469,636 3,162,459 4,115,984 3,635,494 2,826,430 2,963,303 3,068,630 2,226,556 1,728,098 ______________________________________
However, none of these prior art devices solve the problem noted herein in a manner such as taught by the present invention wherein a minimum of effort is required by the user to accomplish the transition between the field configuration and the road transport configuration in merely a matter of less than a minute or so.